Dear GES Families,

I hope that you and your family were able to stay warm throughout the weekend and also enjoy the snow with your children. With the cold temperatures upon us, we wanted to remind all families of our administrative guidelines. We will go outside when the wind chill is above 32 for recess and/or PE. Additionally, there is time outside for arrival, dismissal, and of course if there were an emergency or a drill. For this reason, it is very important that your child has a coat and even sometimes a hat or gloves when they come to school. It is also crucial for you to label all items if you would like help in having them arrive home with them each day. Our students often have a hard time keeping up with their items even with regular reminders from their teachers. When we find a lost item we will always check it for a name before we donate it. 

GCISD Administrative Regulation updated in March 2023, allows for the following:
COLD WEATHER
During times of excessive cold weather (when temperatures or wind chill is below 32 degrees), the following precautions will be taken for all outdoor physical activity including, but not limited to recess, athletic and physical education classes, fine arts programs, and/or outdoor field trips. 

• Teachers and coaching staffs should be aware of the wind chill factor and take appropriate precautions during cold weather.

• If a student does not have adequate warm clothing to participate in the outdoor activity, such clothing should be provided or the student excused from the activity.

• Students should not have recess or Physical Education classes outside when temperature or wind chill factor drops below 32 degrees. 

• Elementary schools should limit outside recess to no more than 15 minutes if wind chill or temperatures fall below 45 degrees. 

Thank you for helping us keep our students safe and warm during these winter months! 

All my best,

Nancy Hale

One School One Book Update

We are well into our reading of Wedgie and Gizmo. We hope your family is enjoying the book and reading along with us! We have had awesome participation with over 300 slips turned in daily! 

Last Friday we announced a classroom competition that we're going to do on select days. The class with the highest number of slips turned in will have the opportunity to keep Gizmo in their classroom for the day. On Wednesday morning we will announce our first winner from slips submitted on Tuesday! 

If you have lost your slips or need another set, you can find them HERE. 

Zootique Volunteers for January

We have loved having volunteers come in and run our Zootique for students to spend their Zoo Bucks! If you have a completed background check and are interested in volunteering your time and sharing in some financial literacy with students as they save and spend, you can sign up HERE. Parent volunteers help make our Zootique a possibility! 

We also have continued to add to our Amazon wishlist and have some new seasonal items that we thought students might enjoy to add to the Zootique. If your family would like to make a donation, you can find the wishlist HERE. 

Thank you so much for all the donations we have already had this year! Our GES families are the absolute best! 

GES Spelling Bee

Congratulations to all our 4th and 5th grade finalists that participated in the GES Spelling Bee last Friday! We had quite the competition, lasting over 2 hours! It was evident that our students had studied and prepared for this competition!

Congratulations to our winner, Kirtan Warrier, and our runner-up, Ahan Basnet. We are so proud of them! Kirtan will go on to our district competition to compete against the other elementary school and middle school winners from GCISD. 

2nd Nine Weeks Attendance Awards

This week during lunches we will be passing out the 2nd Nine Weeks Attendance Awards. These are for students who had no more than 1 tardy and 1 excused absence during the 2nd nine weeks grade period from Oct. 16 - Dec. 15. Students will receive a certificate for a free kids meal at Texas Roadhouse as well as a trip to the toy vending machine in our foyer! 

STAAR Interims

State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR®) Interim Assessments are online assessments that align to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) and that help educators monitor student progress and predict student performance on STAAR.

Students in grades 3-5 will be taking STAAR Interims on January 17th (Reading) and January 18th (Math). Please help us ensure that your students are present on those days and have a healthy breakfast and good sleep the night before. 

GCISD Student Transfers

The general and STEM student transfer application window for the 2024-2025 school year will open on Monday, February 5, 2024, at 8 am. Online applications will be accepted through Friday, February 16, 2024, at 4 pm. 

Transfer Window Dates

Window 1: February 5 - February 16 - STEM/General Transfers

Window 2: March 4 - March 22 - STEM/General Transfers

Window 3: June 3 - June 14 - STEM/General Transfers

All students (including employee students) must apply for a transfer if they desire to attend a campus other than their zoned campus and/or when they are moving from the following grades/campuses:

• Pre-K to Kindergarten 

• Elementary school to middle school

• Middle school to high school

Students who are already approved on a transfer and are not moving to the next transition level do NOT need to submit a transfer request. For more information and to complete an online application on or after Monday, February 5, click here.

IMPORTANT: Please know that incomplete applications (e.g. missing residency documents) will NOT be processed during this round of student transfers. It is very important that families have all the needed documents when submitting transfer applications.

Play it Safe

GCISD offers the "Play It Safe" program for all students in grades PK-5. The GCISD School Health Advisory Council (SHAC is a volunteer council comprised of parents and community members that reflect the values of the district and community) has previewed and recommended these programs for all GCISD elementary schools. The curriculum and presentations are aligned with district philosophy. This program is a personal safety program and does not address human sexuality. Play It Safe is a child abuse prevention and awareness program that incorporates individual grade level, age-appropriate scripts and movies to teach children how to reduce the risk of sexual and physical abuse, and sexual assault. It teaches them to recognize potentially abusive behavior, provides the tools to respond to threatening situations, and encourages them to report abuse to a trusted adult. 

GCISD ofrece el programa de ¡Jugar Seguro! ("Play It Safe!") para todos los estudiantes desde PK-5. El Consejo de Asesoramiento para la Salud Escolar (SHAC, por sus siglas en inglés: School Health Advisory Council) de GCISD (SHAC es un consejo de voluntarios compuesto de padres de familia e integrantes de la comunidad que reflejan los valores del distrito y de la comunidad) ha visto de antemano y recomienda estos programas para todas las escuelas primarias de GCISD. El plan de estudios y las presentaciones se alinean a la filosofía del distrito escolar. Este programa es un programa de seguridad personal y no aborda el tema de la sexualidad humana. ¡Jugar Seguro! es un programa de prevención y de conciencia sobre el abuso infantil que incluye texto apropiado para cada nivel de grado individualmente para su edad, películas para enseñarles a los niños cómo reducir el riesgo de abuso sexual y físico, y de asalto sexual. Les enseña a reconocer un comportamiento que potencialmente sea abusivo, les provee herramientas para responder a situaciones amenazantes, y los motiva a reportar el abuso a un adulto de confianza.    

The Women's Center of Tarrant County, Inc., uses trained employees to present a fact-based personal safety program for students. The presentations are classroom-based so that children are in a familiar environment, and feel comfortable to interact with the trainer. A video is shown, followed by a question and answer time.

El Centro de Mujeres del Condado de Tarrant, Inc. tiene empleados capacitados para presentar un programa a estudiantes que trata sobre los temas de seguridad personal. Las presentaciones se hacen en el salón de clases donde los alumnos se sienten en un ambiente familiar y sienten la confianza de interactuar con la persona que está dando el entrenamiento. Se muestra un video y a continuación habrá tiempo para preguntas y respuestas.

We must have your permission in order for your child to participate in this program. Please indicate OPT IN if you would like your child to participate. We need parents to provide an OPT IN or OPT OUT for their child. Click here to view instructions on how to Opt In/Out from your Family Access.

Debemos tener su permiso para que su hijo participe en este programa. Indique SÍ “OPT IN” si desea que su hijo/a participe. Necesitamos que los padres escojan SÍ “OPT IN” o NO “OPT OUT” para su hijo/a. Haga clic aquí para ver instrucciones sobre cómo participar o no en Skyward Family Access.

Participation Consent Form Deadline is 1 week prior to campus presentation date /  La fecha límite del formulario de Consentimiento de Participación es 1 semana antes de la fecha de presentación en la escuela

 Your child's school will be showing Play It Safe to students on Tuesday, January 30th.

The preview held on January 9th is linked HERE for future reference.

Videos and scripts will be available for parents to preview from 1/03/2024 to 1/31/2024.  https://vimeo.com/showcase/7889498 Password: GC24

Los videos y textos estarán disponibles para que los padres los vean desde el 1/03/2024 hasta el 1/31/2024. https://vimeo.com/showcase/7889498 Contraseña: GC24

If you are unable to view the videos or the parent preview, but wish to view the material, please contact The Women's Center of Tarrant County, Inc. at 817-927-4040 and ask for the Play It Safe department.  

Si no puede ver los videos o la vista previa, pero desea ver el material, favor de ponerse en contacto con el Centro de Mujeres del Condado de Tarrant, Inc. marcando el 817-927-4040 y preguntar por el departamento de ¡Jugar Seguro! 

Join Remind

Are you getting our campus Remind texts? You should automatically get them if your phone number is up to date in Skyward and NOT marked as private. If you aren't receiving messages, you can join by sending @gesgcisd to 81010. 

Report Cards Post

2nd Nine Weeks Report Cards post to Skyward on Wednesday. Please take time to review your child's progress and electronically sign their report card. We appreciate you taking the time to view your child's progress. 

GT Testing

We had over 130 students nominated for GT testing in grades K-5. Mrs. Ganus will be working throughout the month of January to pull students for testing, as each student is required to take specific tests based on their grade level. Homeroom teachers have the current testing schedule if you're curious when your child might be pulled. Results will be sent directly to parents later this spring. 

Technology Check

Have you checked your child's Chromebook or iPad lately? Do they still have working headphones? This is a great time of year to take inventory and make sure that your child has working items coming into testing season. You can submit a help ticket at help.gcisd.net if your child's device is broken, cracked, or not functioning properly. Please check with your child to ensure that their headphones are working properly. These are an essential learning tool to have in class each day and they do break throughout the year and need replacing. 

January Character Quality -- PERSEVERANCE

GES will host guidance lessons regarding PERSEVERANCE throughout this month, as well as some classroom Circle Up conversations. PERSEVERANCE can be defined as pushing yourself to work through challenges and obstacles. Please consider partnering with GES by reviewing the Purposefull People Family Connection Newsletter, and discuss ways to demonstrate PERSEVERANCE at home and at school. Homeroom teachers will nominate a student that has shown the most growth in PERSEVERANCE or demonstrates it in a big way at the end of January.

Lunch Visitors

Lunch guests will sign-in through our secure vestibule with a valid ID, stop by the front office to check-in and receive a visitor badge, and then meet their GES star at the entrance to the cafeteria. Families will have the option to sit outside in the picnic table area for lunch or in our cafeteria at an empty table near the windows. Parents are welcome to bring in outside food when having their lunch with their child. We ask that you please be courteous to the rest of the community and limit lunch visits with your child to no more than one per month so that all families have the opportunity to visit. We appreciate your cooperation. 

Each family needs only 1 slot reserved. For example, Mom, Dad, and sister may all come eat lunch with Nancy. Only Mom needs to be registered as 1 visitor to reserve 1 picnic table together. When it asks for quantity of visitors, please select just 1. Lunch visitors may only eat with their child or student. You may not invite friends to sit with you when coming for lunch. 

You can sign-up for lunch from January 4-31 HERE.

Volunteering

We LOVE our volunteers at GES! This year we are encouraging all families who plan to come to campus and interact with students to go ahead and complete the background check. Volunteers must complete this EACH YEAR beginning in August! It can take 1-2 weeks for your background check to clear. If you plan to be a guest reader, volunteer at a class party, chaperone a field trip, volunteer with PTA, open car doors with our Dad's Club, etc. you will need a completed Background Check!  

The following link takes you to the online Volunteer Handbook and background check: https://www.gcisd.net/o/gcisd/page/volunteer-background-check 

In order to volunteer at GES, or around GCISD, all volunteers must:

1. read the Volunteer Handbook (this replaces the previous face to face volunteer trainings held on campus)

2. watch the appropriate video included in the handbook

3. electronically sign the verification Google form for each campus you plan to volunteer

4. complete the volunteer background check. A link is included in the handbook.

When you are ready to volunteer at GES, feel free to call the front office at 817-251-5735 to verify that both of the required steps have been recorded as completed. We appreciate your support as you complete these steps and volunteer to work with our GES students.